Paying for knowledge has been around for several years as a popular way to monetize business. However, many people, after participating in it, are still curious about the nature of paying for knowledge. This article will explore the origin and essence of knowledge payment, and provide strategies on how to build personal IP through knowledge payment.
01. Buy "invisible" courses
As we all know, the current environment is not particularly good.
The number of friends with "flexible employment" has gradually increased, and there are many people who want to create personal IP through self-media and engage in some side income.
Among them, paying for knowledge is a relatively common way. I also heard that a few friends made a small profit by selling courses, so I became curious about the underlying logic of "knowledge payment".
But now in 2024, knowledge payment is not a new thing, but I have walked on this road for a while, but I still don't understand what the essence of knowledge payment is, and I haven't thought about it well.
Today, I would like to give some inspiration to friends who want to do side hustles, do IP, and realize business monetization through knowledge payment, and understand why we are willing to spend hundreds or thousands, or even tens of thousands, to learn an "invisible" course, so why are we paying?
02. The origin of knowledge payment
Before talking about this topic, let's briefly talk about the concept of knowledge payment, which has been more than 8 years ago.
2016 is known as the "first year of knowledge payment". With the emergence of different modes of knowledge payment products such as "Get APP", "Zhihu live" and "Answering Answers" in the market, knowledge payment has become an important development trend, and related content entrepreneurship has become an outlet.
Back in earlier times, people relied heavily on traditional schooling, books, or instruction from others to acquire knowledge.
Nowadays, through the Internet, we can access a large amount of explosive information and knowledge anytime, anywhere.
This change has made knowledge payment a new trend.
People are not only willing to pay for physical books, but also willing to pay for those "knowledge" that cannot be seen or touched.
Because everyone believes that through this knowledge, they can better improve themselves and realize their personal value.
03. The nature of knowledge payment
So, what is the essence of knowledge payment?
In fact, we can analyze it from three levels.
Level 1: Hope
At the top of the knowledge payment, it is actually selling a thing called "hope" to consumers.
In other words, all the payment for knowledge is essentially selling what one wants to be in the future.
For example, we often see some lecturers in the live broadcast room of some famous teachers' classrooms, usually their endorsements are high-achieving students from Tsinghua University, Peking University, Wuhan University and other famous universities.
What is the logic behind these endorsements that they show their audiences?
In fact, he is telling you that he is qualified to teach you, but the qualifications are not the point. The point is, he's suggesting to you that you don't want your children to be like him. If you want, follow him.
Based on this, it can be concluded that when users buy knowledge paid products, they are often concerned about whether the lecturer has achieved a certain result, whether he has the ability to teach him the core things, and take him as the goal to learn.
In fact, what users really care about is whether they can become like instructors.
In other words, what users buy is never the product itself, but what they can become after purchase, that is, "invisible hope".
The second layer: knowledge
Whether it is offline or online, these lecturers will deliver some knowledge or skills to you, so that you feel that you can feel that you can "I can play ten, I can do it again" after learning, and you will be able to find a good job immediately, and you will soon become a "powerful" person like a lecturer.
As for the level of the lecturer, we will not evaluate, anyway, in that situation, your emotional value is unprecedentedly satisfied.
Some people feel that they have learned something, even if they can't become a "powerful" person like a lecturer in the end, they feel content.
Some people calm down after going back and think that this is not just "liars and cutting leeks", because he feels that he has not learned anything, as if he has collected an IQ tax.
In fact, in my opinion, if you are willing to pay money, he will give you knowledge, and what everyone is doing is a value exchange. If you are unbalanced, then you think they are liars. If you think it's a money exchange for knowledge, you also think it's a good deal.
Therefore, whether it is cutting leeks or not, the judging standard is in the hearts of consumers, and everyone should have a rod scale.
The third layer: fear
Fear is the bottom of the payment for knowledge.
What is fear? It's something that users want to desperately run away from.
For example, some parents will feel anxious and fearful when they see their children not like to study, skip class, fall in love, be disobedient, and rebellious.
At this time, parents may find the live broadcast room of famous teachers, looking for suitable teachers, hoping to solve the problem by paying for knowledge.
The teacher desperately emphasized these pain points in the live broadcast room, stimulated parents' anxiety and fear, and made them involuntarily place orders.
Paying for knowledge is to attract users through this top-level and bottom-level framework. At the top is hope, in the middle is knowledge, and at the bottom is fear.
Stimulating users to place orders with anxiety and guiding users to pay with hope is the basic logic of knowledge payment.
04. How to create a personal IP through knowledge payment?
If you want to build a personal IP by paying for knowledge and turn a side hustle into a main business, the following steps are key:
Step 1: Understand what your fans really want
First, you need to understand the needs of your fans (or a small group of people around you).
These groups of people are your initial connections, with affection or trusting relationships. You need to figure out what their greatest wish is. What they want to learn the most, what they want themselves or their children to become.
Step 2: Understand your fans' anxieties
Next, you'll want to understand what their anxiety or pain point is. For example, are you afraid of marriage? Feeling lost about your future career? Are you worried about your child's learning?
Grasp these anxieties in order to accurately position your knowledge paid products.
Step 3: Sell the product
Finally, you'll be able to sell them course-related products. These products must be valuable enough to meet their needs and solve their pain points.
Only when these things are met will they be likely to pay.
05. Summary
Nowadays, paying for knowledge has become a trend, and behind it is actually the realization of trust. If you treat knowledge payment as a mere commodity, you may not sell much.
In order to form a business model for knowledge payment, trust must come first. You can use a personal IP in the public domain or a personal IP in the private domain, but both need to build trust.
Without trust, knowledge payment cannot be successful. The core of knowledge payment is actually poor information, and those invisible emotions, fears and anxieties are the real selling points.
Therefore, the success of knowledge payment lies in whether you can touch the emotions and needs of users, and whether you can guide them to pay through hope and fear.
This article was written by Everyone is a Product Manager [PM who has been iterating], WeChat public account: [has been iterating], original/authorized Published in Everyone is a product manager, without permission, it is forbidden to reprint.
Image from Unsplash, based on the CC0 license.